Shelby Katz didn’t expect to change the face of the New York City Triathlon when she sent an e-mail to the race’s owner, thanking him for putting on a great event last year. But she did, giving it a long nose, floppy ears, dark brown fur and adorable blue eyes.

It is the face of Rembrandt, Katz’s beloved chocolate Lab, who died last summer and became a New York City celebrity posthumously this past Sunday.

“She was just the perfect dog,” said Katz, who works for Coors-Tek in Golden.

Rembrandt was memorialized Sunday via the first (and probably not the last) Rembrandt Cup, a 5-mile race in Central Park that was staged in conjunction with New York’s premier triathlon. Katz was there to observe.

“It was a very emotional day for me,” said Katz, 37. “People kept asking me the story, and I was in tears a lot. A TV station interviewed me, and they had me bawling.”

The Olympic-distance triathlon, which attracted 3,200 athletes, included a 1.5-kilometer swim in the Hudson River, a 40K bike ride and a 10K run. The Rembrandt Cup was conceived as a Doggie Duathlon — each dog was issued a life vest for the swim in the Hudson — but the doggie paddle had to be eliminated the day before the race because of a jellyfish infestation.

Good move. Some of the humans who competed reported being stung.

So 14 dogs and their owners ran in the Rembrandt Cup. The top three were given orange fire hydrants at the awards ceremony, which preceded the triathlon awards, and the winner got the Rembrandt Cup.

“It was hilarious,” Katz said of the race. “One of the dogs completely freaked out when the (starting) gun went off, and fell over. And he was the one that ended up winning.”

The story of the Rembrandt Cup began last year when Katz lost Rembrandt to cancer a week before the triathlon. Rembrandt had been on her deathbed in the weeks preceding the race, in which Katz had hoped to finish in the top 10 in her age group.

During the race Katz saw tennis balls along the route that reminded her of fond memories with Rembrandt. She wore Rembrandt’s dog tag and felt as if Rembrandt was racing with her, step by step. They had been together nearly 12 years, since “Remmy” was 7 weeks old.

“I called her my little bittersweet,” Katz said. “When she was a puppy, she looked like a little chocolate jelly bean with blue eyes.”

After the race last year, Katz sent race owner John Korff an e-mail, praising his event as “the best race ever.” She mentioned her performance had suffered because she had quit training the last four weeks before the race to spend every minute she could with Rembrandt.

Korff was so moved, he concocted the Doggie Duathlon. The race website (www.nyctri.com) includes photos of all the entrants and Rembrandt.

“You could feel the passion,” Korff said of Katz’s e-mail. “An e-mail is (on) a flat screen, but you could just feel in living color her passion for her dog and how touched she was by her dog’s passing.”

On Sunday, Korff wore Rembrandt’s collar. All day.

“It was hilarious,” Katz said. “He was like, ‘Please don’t lose that collar. We have to have it for next year.’ He’s like, ‘You’re going to be here next year, right?’ ”

Korff vowed to work with the New York City harbor patrol to figure out a way to make the swim safe for dogs next year. Presumably there will be no repeat of the jellyfish invasion.

Not that it will help Katz. Her new dog, Bella, is a landlubber.

“Bella will do everything possible to stay away from water, which makes no sense, because she’s part Lab,” Katz said. “Rembrandt would have been all over this. You couldn’t get her out of the water.”

The Post's ski and Olympics writer, Meyer covered his 12th Games last summer in Rio de Janeiro. He has covered five World Alpine Ski Championships and more than 100 World Cup ski events. He is a member of the Colorado Ski & Snowboard Hall of Fame and Colorado Running Hall of Fame. He regularly covers running and the Colorado Rapids.

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